Editorials

Hampton Roads this week received a double dose of good long-term economic news. One shows the traditional strength of the local maritime economy, and the other shows the payoff for diversification.

First, the traditional: A healthy piece of the 2000 budget President Clinton presented includes increased spending for defense.

Then, diversification: Computer-maker Gateway plans a major expansion of its Hampton plant.

The defense budget increase is good news for the 120,000 active-duty and reserve troops in our area, who stand to get the best raise they've seen this decade. It's good, too, for civilian workers, as increased Navy shipbuilding work is promised.

And it all rolls into a stronger local economy, with more consumer confidence, more job security, and more retail spending that supports other jobs.

The upbeat defense budget news is affirmation that the post-Cold War cutbacks that stressed this area in the early 1990s are over. And the Gateway announcement is affirmation that the area has reduced its traditional over-reliance on military spending.

With Gateway, the local market is enjoying the harvest from a strong national economy and from holding a stake in an industry that is in peak demand.

After opening its $18 million, 284,000-square foot Hampton assembly plant in 1996, Gateway expanded to more than 400,000 square feet last year, and 2,000 employees now work at the plant. With new plans to grow 11/2 times the size of the existing plant, hundreds more jobs are likely to be added to the regional economy.

And they are the kind of jobs the area needs: skilled work for moderate-to-high pay. There is plenty of work in Hampton Roads, but too much of it has become minimum-wage sales and service employment, which does not make up for the decade's loss of defense-industry jobs. The boom in telemarketing centers, for example, has provided work, but it has also helped keep local wages below the national average and below the average of competing Southern metropolises.

In both the defense budget news in Washington and the Gateway expansion in Hampton, the promise of more - and more rewarding - work highlights the success of local job-creation efforts. A strong congressional delegation and a strong local commitment to education, workforce training and creative economic development help keep the economy moving in the right direction.

An infant dies

Justice elusive for sleeping mom, drowned baby

What is justice for Amy Barrett?

She will live the rest of her life knowing that one night, after she tossed back four to six beers, her infant son died. It's more complicated than that brief summation, but that's really what Barrett's case is all about.

Drinking. Responsibility. Parental guidance - and neglect.

Still, what is the justice that Barrett should receive when a judge sentences her in April for "felony homicide," the form of second-degree murder that jurors pronounced her guilty of on Wednesday?

Here's what happened. Barrett, who is 26, had returned to her Poquoson home following a party the night of April 17. After her boyfriend left for work, she put her 21/2-year-old daughter in her room, popped a tape into the VCR, and placed 10-month-old Joshua on the floor nearby. Then she went to sleep on the sofa.

She awakened about three hours later, after her boyfriend returned and found the baby floating face down in the bathtub, under a blanket, laundry basket and several toys. Officials say Barrett's daughter killed Joshua, and Barrett's boyfriend testified that the toddler often hit Joshua and tried before to smother him in his crib.

Barrett didn't testify in her defense. Had she passed out? Was she too inebriated to wake up from the sounds of her son in the tub? Or was this simply a case where she was tired, so exhausted, that she didn't realize the horrible incident taking place just a few feet from her slumber?

It's perhaps not a classic case of abuse, but obviously Barrett neglected her children at a time when they were vulnerable. She didn't have to drink so many beers, even over the course of several hours. Barrett knew the children depended on her. Yet ...

Last year, a Hampton woman, Katasha Lyttle, pleaded guilty to felony abuse and neglect after she left several small children home alone. Her tiny, 9-month-old daughter fell in a bucket of water and died. A Hampton circuit judge suspended a one-year term.

Next month, a York County woman, Kathleen Carlson, faces the same homicide charge as Barrett in the death of her toddler, who drowned in an outdoor pool while Carlson - who had a history of drinking - wasn't paying attention.

Now, Circuit Judge Prentis Smiley must sentence Barrett on April 7. She faces seven years in prison, as recommended by the jury, but Smiley could suspend all or part of those seven years.

Is prison too harsh for this woman who partied, and then slept while her son died? Or is prison time right because she neglected her children? Would separating Barrett from her surviving child do more harm than good for her daughter?

Barrett will face a lifetime knowing she's ultimately responsible for what happened to Joshua. Whether she spends any of that lifetime in prison ought to depend on whether she has a history of neglect, or committed a terrible, irrevocable mistake.